Last night's cabin was, well, beyond basic. Very well worn, not very clean, a strong moldy smell, but a full kitchen in which Aline made us a great dinner. Then we all headed for different beds. There were lots of decision points: how close to a nicely screened window? how lumpy was the mattress? how easy to navigate to the bathroom in the dark? good pillows? We all felt quite certain that we had made the best possible choice and equally certain that the best possible choice was not particularly good.
Lights out, and we all shut our eyes and hoped for sleep. We are all quite sure we did not sleep well, and yet we all remember different things that went on. I heard three gunshots. I am SO not used to living in an area where that does not - should not - lead to a 911 call! But I managed to keep my hands off the phone. The service was lousy there and besides, who knew what I might step on if I tried to get up and find the phone? Then I heard tiny bits of rustling, and footsteps. That turned out to be Aline trying not to wake us up. Then it rained and rained and rained. I read a whole book last night, just listening. This sounds sort of spooky; it wasn't. It was just so unfamiliar. We were pretty ready to get out & head for the next place in the morning.
Our route today was to be 60 miles from Luther to Clare, Michigan + whatever it took us to get all the way to Luther. We figured three miles or so. It turned out to be ten. Fortunately, the rain had stopped & the weather was quite nice. The roads were pretty nice, too. As soon as we reached Luther we were once again on the Adventure Cycling maps & that is reassuring. Aline scouted out a place for lunch.
As we rode, I was going faster, so when my cell phone rang I had time to take the call without slowing us down. It was a guy I have talked to through the NBTS connection. He also had an oligodendroglioma & has found it helpful to talk to me & others who have had the same experience. I first talked to him in Montana. Since then he has had surgery & is recovering very well, but there are still future treatment choices to make. It's a lot to absorb. So I felt bad when my cell service suddenly decided to fail. We did manage to talk about an hour later.
The lunch place was fine. I had come up to another cross country cyclist - carrying everything, so catching up was easy enough - who was eating at the same place with some motorcycle friends. While we were there, the weather arrived. It poured. Thunder roared. Bruce moved the bikes to a slightly more sheltered spot and we waited for it to pass, happy that the timing had been so convenient. It was quite a narrow system, and within an hour or so there was more blue sky than gray, and heaps of beautiful clouds all around.
We rode another hour or so, then had to make a couple of turns. I was a little surprised at how quickly the second turn arrived, surprised that the mileage sign brought our destination quite a bit closer, and once we had turned, surprised we were to ride on such a busy road for ten miles. But the shoulder was adequate, the road sloped gently down, and the wind was behind us. We had gone several miles when it occurred to me that the road number on the signs was not right. My brain was pretty mushy.
Once again, though, good luck prevailed. Turns out we had accidentally turned too soon onto a road that took us about as directly as possible to Clare. We missed some pretty roads. Aline got to see them and told us about them. But we kept the downhill trend and the tailwind and had a blast riding mostly 20+ mph all the 25 miles we had left. And it saved us about 7 miles. And tonight's hotel is a big place with all sorts of space and services. As Bruce said when we arrived, we are ready for this!
Miles today: 64
Total miles so far: 3144
No comments:
Post a Comment